Knitting machine needle



June 18, 1957 R. c. AMIDON El'AL 2,796,606

KNITTING MACHINE NEEDLE Filed NOV. 6, 1952 E 2 Sheets-Sheet l ATTORNEYJ1me 1957 R. c. AMIDON ETAL 2,796,606

KNITTING MACHINE NEEDLE Filed Nov. 6, 1952 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORSfwd;

ATTORNEY United States Patent KNITTING MACHINE NEEDLE Roy C. Amidon andDonald W. Rhoads, Reading, Pa., assignors, by direct and mesneassignments, to Nance, Incorporated, Reading, Pa., a corporation ofPennsylvania Application November 6, 1952, Serial No. 319,092

12 Claims. (Cl. 66-120) Our invention relates to a knitting machine anda needle therefor of the type having a grooved hook element and a tongueelement slidable in the groove of the hook element, and it is an objectof the invention to provide a needle of this type that shall haveincreased speed and certainty in action over those now known, and whichshall be less liable to damage the yarn that is being knitted than isthe case with needles now in use.

Another object is to provide a needle in which the tongue shall matevery exactly with the hook, so as to avoid any failure to produce exactregistry between the hook and the tongue.

Another object is to provide a needle having complementary beveled edgesin the tip of the hook portion and on the coacting part of the tongue,so located and arranged as to tend to bring the hook and the tongue intoprecise registry, such that no edges thereof will extend outside theperimeter of the needle head in a manner to damage the yarn, and so asto insure certainty in the opening and closing movements of the needleelements.

Another object is to provide a machine utilizing sliding tongue needlesand having means pressing uniformly against the tongues of all theneedles to maintain them in place in the grooves of the needle hookswith uniform pressure.

Another object is to provide improved means for lubricating thecontacting surfaces of the hooks and the slidab le tongues.

Referring now to the annexed drawings, which are made a part of thisapplication and in which similar reference characters indicate similarparts:

Fig. 1 is a cross section of a knitting machine with parts omitted,

Fig. 2, an enlarged view of parts shown in Fig. 1,

Fig. 3, a view similar to Fig. 2, but with parts in a difierentposition,

Fig. 4, a rear elevation of the needle supporting means and certaincooperating parts,

Fig. 5, a side elevation of the improved needle, with parts broken away,

Fig. 6, an elevation of the upper end portion of the needle, in closedposition,

Fig. 7, a section on line 77 of Fig. 5,

Fig. 8, a section on line 88 of Fig. 6, and

Fig. 9, a modification of oiling means, in cross section.

In the drawings, reference character 10 indicates the main camshaft of atricot knitting machine, it being understood that the needle of ourinvention may be used either in tricot or warp knitting machines or inother knitting machines of known varieties to which it may be suited. Aseries of cams of suitable or conventional types are mounted on thecamshaft to rotate therewith and they may actuate knittinginstrumentalities such as those shown in the drawings. The principalparts of the machine are of conventional variety or may be so. Amongsuch parts there is a shaft 11 carrying the usual swingable yarn guides12 and 13. The shaft 11 carries a rockarm 14 ice connected by a link 15to a lever 16 pivoted on a shaft 17. The lever 16 is oscillated by meansof one or more of the cams on the shaft 10 throughthe medium of rollerssuch as shown at 18. Sinkers 19 on a supporting bar 20 are moved to andfro in known manner by means of similar cams and levers; and likeconnections are provided for bars that carry the hooks and theslidabletongues but conventional details of such cams and the-linkagesthat connect them to the actuated parts are not shown as they are ingeneral use and well understood by those skilled in the art of knitting.I

The grooved needle hook elements 22 are bestshown in Figs. 5 to 7 andeach one of them consists of a shank terminating at its upper end in ahook 23, having an indentation 24 in the side facing toward the pper endof the tongue 25. The said end of the tongue is beveled at oppositesides, as shown in Fig. 8, to form a ridge 25'. The indentation 24 hasitsopposed. faces beveled to form a groove that is V-shaped in crosssection (see Fig. 8) and the oppositely-inclined faces at the end of thetongue fit closely against the oppositely inclined faces of theindentation 24, so that the tongue tends to cam itself toward a positionwhere the rounded crest of the ridge 25' fits into the deepest part ofthe indentation v24 with its oppositely beveled faces mating with theopposite faces of the V-shaped slot. Because this ridge fits in thedepression, with the registering edges inclined relatively to the lengthof the needle and, of course, to the length of the tongue, the jointbetween the parts at the meeting line of such edges is very smooth andsuch smoothness is insured by the camming action whereby the ridge tendsto ride to the deepest part of the indentation, so that danger of anyfraying of the yarn is minimized.

The hook elements 22 have their lower ends bent and cast into leadholders 26, and the lead holders are clamped on a bar 27, which bar isfixed to a lever 28 by screws 28'. The lever is pivoted at 17 and isoperated by one or more of the cams on the camshaft 10.

The tongue elements 25 are likewise bent at their lower ends and castinto lead holders 30 that are secured to a bar 31 that is mounted toslide up and down on the lever 28 near the lefthand end of the lever, soas to make it possible to move the hook and tongue elements eithertogether or separately in forming stitches. To this end the bar 31 isfastened to a block 33 by screws 32. The block is guided by a yoke 34that is fastened at its ends to a fixed part of lever 28 by means ofscrews 35. The block 33 slides on a hardened steel wear plate at 36, andthe bar 27 with the tongue elements is adjustable vertically by means ofscrews 37. At its lower end the block is attached to a link 38 carriedby a lever operated from a cam on the camshaft.

For holding the tongues in place at the rear of the grooves in the hookelements and also to lubricate them in simple and effective manner, weprovide means comprising a bar 39 that extends across a long series 'ofneedles at the open side of the grooves in the hook elements. The bar ispreferably made of oilite but any suitable material can be used forholding the tongues in place, and preferably the bar will embody meansfor applying a lubricant of suitable character to the needles. This baris supported on a fixed part of the lever 28 by means of uprightbrackets 40 fastened at the lower end to yoke 34 by bolts 42 and fixedat their upper ends to the bar 39 by screws 41 to hold the bar in place.

In operation the bars for the needle tongues and hooks are moved up anddown, and the sinkers are moved to and fro across the path of theneedles, as are also the yarn fingers, all in a manner familiar to thoseskilled in the art. The bar 39 which is preferably but not necessarilymade of oil-impregnated wood used for bearings for shafts and the like,and known commercially as oilite, will function to lubricate the partsof the needle and to keep the parts in place.

In Fig. 9 we have shown a modification consisting in a bar 43 having arecess at 44 in its upper front part, which contains a pad or wick 44that may be saturated with on orfotherwise supplied with any suitablelubricant for greasing the needles. Q

It will be obvious that many variations may be made in thedevices'herein disclosed, all without departing from the spirit of theinvention; and therefore we do not limit ourselves to what is shown inthe drawings and described in the specification, but only as indicatedin the appended claims. 7

Having thus fully described our invention, fwhat we claim is:

1. A knitting machine. needleof the sliding tongue type comprising ashank with a longitudinal groove therein, a hook at one end of the shankwith a longitudinal slot in its tip portion, a tongue silidable in saidgroove, anda terminal ridge on the tongue shaped to mate with the slotwhen the needle is closed.

2. A device as in claim 1, wherein the slot in the hook is V-shaped incross section.

3. A device as in claim 1, wherein the opposite sides of the slot lie inintersecting planes.

' 4. A device as in claim 1, wherein the inner and outer faces of thetip portion of the hook lie approximately parallel to each other, andthe slot extends approximatel from one of said faces to the other.

5. A device as in claim 1, wherein the slot is V- a 4 shaped and theopposed faces of the slot are inclined from the front of the needletoward the rear thereof.

6. A device as in claim 5, wherein the slot in the hook is V-shaped incross-section.

7. A device as in claim 1, wherein the inner and outer faces of thetongue are approximately parallel, and the ridge extends from one ofsaid faces to the other.

8. A device as in claim 7, wherein the crest of the ridge is roundedfrom front to rear of the needle.

9. A device as in claim 8, wherein the crest of the ridge mates with thebottom of the slot in the closed position of the needle.

10. A device as in claim 8, wherein the terminal portion of the tonguehas a face oblique to the body of the needle, and the hook has a slotshaped to mate with said face when the needle is closed.

11. A device as in claim 10, said slot in the hook having oppositelyinclined faces to-mate with the diverging-lateral faces at the upperend'of the tongue.

12. A device as in' claim 1, wherein the opposed faces of I the slot andthe ridge are inclined from the front of the needle toward the rear andthe opposed faces of the ridge are inclined oppositely laterally of'theneedle while those of the slot areinclined toward one another laterallyof the same.

Platt et al. Feb. 25, 1873 Curtiss June 30, 1874

